Bill and his wife, Connie personally ran US Fencing from their home in West New York, NJ

Bill and Connie Latzko

A brief biography which Bill wrote in a letter to Andy Shaw:

Connie and I have been in fencing since the early fifties. In fact, we met at a fencing meet in Connecticut. I started to fence in 1946 at Fordham As team manager, I learned a lot about the Epee scoring machines from Charly Willous, their inventor. When Charly retired as the AFLA Technician, I was asked to take his place. Jimmy Castello and I worked together to keep the equipment working. Jimmy continued when Uncle Sam needed me in Korea.

When I came back from Korea, Joe deCapriles asked me to run for Secretary of the AFLA (now USFA). I could not do it at the time since I was going to school. However, Connie undertook to become the Recording Secretary, a post which she held for many years. As such she did what the Colorado office is doing today. Of course, there were only about 2,000 members at the time. It was BC (before computers) and Connie kept all the records by hand on card files. I can’t imagine how the organization could have gotten along without her.

I became Secretary after I got my MBA. Around 1961 or 1962, I persuaded Columbia Record Club to use the AFLA list to check the speed of mailing records from their Terre Haut facility. With the approval of the Board our members received free records and did a great job in giving us responses. As a result, the membership list was transferred to my staff at Terre Haut and put first on EAM (Electronic Accounting Machines) and later on computers. At the same time, Norman Lewis and I introduced the three year membership. The net result was to double the membership.

Later I became Treasurer of the USFA. While I enjoyed fencing personally, I was better as an administrator than as a fencer. As treasurer I worked to set up the system for our then new office at Colorado Springs. When the result of the Los Angeles Olympics gave the USFA 2 million dollars, I put these in Treasury bonds and with the help of Steve Sobel and Irwin Bernstein made sure that the principal remained in tact and we used the income to promote fencing. This upset some people who wanted to spend it all.

Connie in the meanwhile worked hard to keep the New Jersey growing. For a long time we were very active.

The Metropolitan Saber Trophy that you just acquired brought back to me that I may have been the last one to run the tournament. I dimly remember that the NYAC won the trophy with a Team of Dr. Tibor Nyalas, Dr. Jimmy (Doc) Flynn and Norman Armitage.

The Fencing Section of the New York Turn-Verein, first organized in 1850, is the oldest fencingclub in New York City and probably in the country. In celebrating its 100th Anniversary this year it will act as a host to a special AFLA competition for which it will supply medals and a suitable plaque.

The past year has seen a change in direction with establishment of the North American circuit of events. This circuit was established to achieve a critically important goal—that of providing our top fencers with stronger competition throughout the season beyond fencing one another in a “closed event”. Why? It was done to provide a sounder base by which we could select our best fencers to represent the U.S. in major national events: World Championships, Pan-American games and Olympic Games.

On April 7th the Club’s highest athletic honor, the Veterans Award, will be presented to Fencing Chairman Jack Keane. A former football player, Jack began fencing instruction with Maestro Niederkirchner in 1957. So remarkable was his natural aptitude that he made the finals in the national foil championship in 1958. In 1960 and 1961 he gained the Metropolitan three weapon crown. Then in ’62 he “switched blades,” and specialized in saber. His progress in saber has been meteoric: he ‘was a finalist in the 1964 Olympic Trials ; in ’66 he placed second in the Hungarian Outdoor Championships ; and in ’67 he took the Pan Am gold medal. Jack will be the first fencer ever honored by the Veterans.